186 
T U R 
pillage and massacre. At day-break, on the 4th, nothing 
remained to the garrison but two small forts, and the con¬ 
vent of St. Nicholas. In these three last holds they con¬ 
tinued to defend themselves with an heroic obstinacy of pur¬ 
pose ; and finding all further resistance impossible, they 
resolved to set fire to some mines which had been formed 
under the works on which they were fighting. The ex¬ 
plosion took place at the very moment that the Turks esca- 
laded the ramparts, and buried the conqueror and the con¬ 
quered under a common pile of ruins. The Turks, it is 
said, lost three thousand men in the conflict on this second 
day alone; but the ruin to Ipsara was total; her whole 
population disappeared, with the exception of a few hundreds 
that took refuge in the interior, and continued to hide them¬ 
selves in caves from the research of the conquerors. Two 
hundred pieces of cannon were found on the works; Chosrew 
Pacha spiked such of them as he did not carry away, and 
then set sail for Samos, leaving a body of troops to complete 
the demolition of the forts. Five hundred heads and about 
as many pairs of ears were sent in testimony of this triumph 
to Constantinople, and nailed, as is the Turkish custom, 
with respect to such trophies, to the gates of the seraglio. 
The intelligence of this catastrophe when it arrived at 
Hydra, only roused the government and the people of that 
place to purposes of retribution and revenge; a fleet was 
immediately collected, in which was embarked a force of 
1200 men, which set sail under the command of .Admiral 
Miaoulis, and came in sight of Ipsara on the 14th. They 
found the Capitan Pacha had already departed; the forts 
were destroyed, and the whole island wore an aspect of 
singular desolation. A Turkish force, however, as we have 
seen, had been left on the spot, which the Greeks estimate 
at 2000 men, although the mussulmans do not describe it as 
amounting to a third of that number. They were com¬ 
pletely surprised by the sudden appearance and attack of the 
Greeks, and nearly the whole were either killed or taken 
prisoners; of the vessels in the harbour the only one which 
escaped was a frigate which succeeded in rejoining the 
Turkish fleets at Mitylene. 
Meanwhile the Capitan Pacha was meditating the inflic¬ 
tion of a similar blow against the more important island of 
Samos, one of the most flourishing of the Archipelago. In 
the present crisis, with the unhappy catastrophe of Ipsara 
before their eyes, and menaced with a force yet more over¬ 
whelming than had been employed for the extirpation of 
that unfortunate community, they seemed to abate nothing 
of their resolution to defend their liberties to the last extre¬ 
mity. All their preparations, accordingly, bore a cha¬ 
racter of desperate resistance; the whole of their women and 
children, and sick and aged, with their more valuable move¬ 
ables were conveyed into the mountains in the interior; and 
every building or habitation which could serve as a shelter 
or screen to the advance of the enemy, was razed to the 
ground. The division of the Greek fleet under Vice-Admiral 
Sactouris was stationed in the neighbourhood of the island 
in order to watch the motions of the enemy, and prevent 
his debarkation; the other division under Miaoulis had 
set sail to look out for the Egyptian armament, the approach 
of which w'as daily expected. 
It was not until the 11th of August that the Capitan Pacha 
appeared off the coast of Samos, and opened a fire on the 
Samian forts erected in that quarter, while the transports 
endeavoured to land a body of four thousand Asiatic troops 
on the north of the island; this operation, however, was 
effectually prevented by the Grecian fleet; a division of 
which fell upon the transports, sunk two or three, and dis¬ 
persed the rest. 
On the 17th a more serious attempt was made by Chosrew 
Pacha, w'ho ordered the Capitan Bey to bear down upon the 
strait, not two miles wide, which divides the island from the 
continent, and to transport across this channel the Asiatic 
army which was assembled on the shore, at the feet of mount 
Mycale. The Turks found the strait occupied by a Greek 
flotilla of forty sail, which seemed quietly to await the 
KEY. 
onset; they continued to approach them, and had come 
within reach of cannon-shot, when six fire-ships, under the 
direction of Canaris, were pushed forward from the Greek 
line of battle, and thrown among the Turkish fleet. Two 
of them were fastened to frigates; a third was grappled with 
a brig; the three devoted vessels immediately took fire and 
blew up, communicating the flames to the transports which 
surrounded them. All was now confusion in the fleet of the 
Moslems; terror seemed to spread among the troops on 
shore who broke up in disorder, and the Capitan Pacha 
abandoning all hope of being enabled to effect a landing, 
withdrew from the coast, having lost, in the affair, besides 
the three ships of war, about twelve hundred men and a 
considerable number of transports. 
About the middle of July, Dervish Pacha, with an army 
of 20,000 men, chiefly Albanians, broke up from Larissa 
and penetrated into Livadia from the north, with the view of 
advancing on Salona and thence to Lepanto, where he 
hoped to effect his junction with Omer Vrioni, who was 
marching on the same point from Epirus. On the 18th, a 
strong Turkish division attacked the position of the Greeks 
at Masonitza, but was defeated with loss in four successive 
assaults. Four days after they brought up a large force, 
which by dint of numerical superiority carried the position, 
and thence advanced to Gravia; but the Greeks receiving a 
reinforcement on their part, resumed the offensive, and by 
an able movement on the enemy’s flanks compelled him to 
retrace his steps. On the 26th, Dervish Pacha came up with 
his whole force and attacked the Hellenic army, which was 
strongly posted at Amplana; an action of nine hours en¬ 
sued, in which the Turks were completely discomfited with 
great loss. 
It was not until after the failure of Dervish Pacha that 
Omer Vrioni appeared on the scene of action. Every pre¬ 
paration to oppose his progress had been adopted by Mav- 
rocordato, who established his head-quarters at Ligovitzi, 
and distributed his several corps in the principal positions 
commanding the advance of the enemy. About the middle 
of August, Omer advanced from his camp at Carvassara 
upon Ambracia and Agrapidi. A series of affairs of detail 
ensued in which the Turks, or rather Albanians, for of such 
almost wholly consisted the invading army, were uniformly 
repulsed; and by the end of the month the pacha had been 
compelled to retreat with precipitation, and resume his 
position at Cavassara. Nothing more was attempted on 
this side in the course of the present year, and in November, 
Omer fell back into Epirus. 
The Seraskier advanced once more from Thessaly, and at¬ 
tempted to force his way into Bceotia by the celebrated pass 
of Thermopylte. He had already received two checks in 
this defile; but advanced a third time with better hope of 
success, as his troops had discovered a by-way over Mount 
iEta, by which he detached a division to take the Greeks in 
the rear, at the same time that he himself led on the attack 
in front. By a singular coincidence, however, it happened 
that the detachment fell in with a body of about two thousand 
Greeks, which was hastening by forced marches to join their 
friends in the pass. The Turkish detachment was instantly 
attacked and cut to pieces; the victors then hurried forward 
to Thermopylae, where the combat had already begun, 
and their sudden appearance immediately decided the fate 
of it. The Turks were driven from the field with great loss 
and in complete disorder, leaving in the hands of the Greeks 
fourteen standards, with all their artillery. 
The maritime operations of this year were of a more de¬ 
cisive character than those which took place by land ; and 
yet in one sense the campaign by sea could hardly be said 
to have begun, as the formidable armament from Egypt, 
which for some months past had been expected, had only 
just arrived in the Archipelago. The expedition consisted 
of 9 frigates, 14 corvettes, 40 brigs, and about 240 trans¬ 
ports, on board of which was embarked a force of 18,000 
men, including four Arab regiments, disciplined after the 
European .manner, and officered in great part by Europeans, 
chiefly 
